Posted on 02/27/2005 11:10:03 AM PST by mathprof
Harvard University president Lawrence Summers has suffered acrimonious condemnation, and may have jeopardized his job, for suggesting that the underrepresentation of women in engineering and some scientific fields may be due in part to inherent differences in the intellectual abilities of the sexes. But Summers could be right.
Some scholars who are in the know about the differences between mens' and womens' brains believe his remarks have merit.
"Among people who do the research, it's not so controversial. There are lots and lots of studies that show that mens' and womens' brains are different," says Richard J. Haier, a professor of psychology in the pediatrics department of the University of California Los Angeles medical school.
Academia has been bitterly divided in recent years by the nature vs. nurture debate, and the Harvard president's comments last month at a National Bureau of Economic Research symposium squarely address aspects of that dispute that are so controversial the opposing sides almost never discuss them.
On one side are those who believe the sexes are equal enough in their intellectual abilities that any biological difference between them is vastly outweighed by social pressures and discrimination that discourage girls and women from pursuing science and engineering.
"When people hear 'biology' they think there's nothing you can do about it," says Joshua Aronson, a professor of applied psychology at New York University. "It's in that context that Summers' remarks are not helpful."
On the other side are those who believe that biological differences between men and women really can account for at least some of the underrepresentation of women in engineering and some fields of science.
(Excerpt) Read more at story.news.yahoo.com ...
Those experts had better get ready to be blacklisted.
Summers is being ritually disemboweled and quartered by the free speech champions of the left who are only too keen to make con artist Ward Churchill their hero.
Ha. My husband said that Summers would have been better off going home and beating his wife than opening a frank discussion about something that is at least arguably demonstrable with empirical evidence.
And I happen to be one of those "scientific" women, too...though strangely, I didn't even flinch at his comment. Perhaps it's because I spent the vast majority of my undergrad experience being one of only a handful of women in the physics and calculus classes, and often wondered why myself.
Young America's Foundation Recommends Top Ten Conservative Colleges
http://www.yaf.org/2004-2005_top10.asp
The implication of the article is that you were under intense social pressure and suffered discrimination. Did that happen to you?
"If I had to guess, the real reason for the lack of women in the upper strata is that there's a comfort zone when you walk into a classroom and see a certain number of people like you," Aronson says.
Female physicists and engineers almost always live their entire professional lives outside that comfort zone...
...whereas men tend to care less about such goofy trivialties as "comfort zones" than do women.
I don't see Pepperdine in Malibu on these lists. I know Ken Starr is a fellow there. Is that becuase it is not consistently conservative?
I'd certainly look into Hillsdale College.........
no kidding.....in grad school my thesis advisor used to tell a great joke.....he was the psychometric statistical expert for a professor at UC that was trying to show there really are IQ differences in the races......he used to call up Dr. Alf and say," Robert, I've got some good date over here but I don't know why there are blacks and Hispanics turning my car over in the parking lot"....haha.....even if he could prove it, the hysterics and naysayers would crucify him.......
Oh, I don't know, just trying to help a fellow FReeper when I can. I'm sure the list is longer on other researcher's lists.
Heck - they had some minor studies on the topic in the "50s and '60s; it's not like the guy invented something to antagonize the emotional cripples with.
of course what Summers touched on is well established, but lets call political correctness what it is-LIBERAL FASCISM.
Don't try to confuse the feminazis with a lot of facts.
You could do worse than Texas A&M University. Check it out.
what a choice of words. "Hysterical" means a womanly insanity - hence, Hysterectomy.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.